


The Start of Something New

by YellowGoingBlue



Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, M/M, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-12 23:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18456830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowGoingBlue/pseuds/YellowGoingBlue
Summary: The worst part of leaving a time loop is the memories.Shintaro did not leave his routes unscathed.





	The Start of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all! Right off the bat, I want to thank you for checking out this fic! I hope you enjoy you it, and if not, I hope that it helps pass the time! I apologize if characters are out of character, it's been an eternity since I read a translation of either the manga, or the light novel, or watched the anime. For the past couple of days, I've been jiving to the music, so I really wanted to write something for this series. 
> 
> Forgive me for not complying with Japenese naming conventions! Also, this isn't beta read, because we die like men.

 

Shintaro wakes up a sweaty mess, tangled in an assortment of his, Takane's, and Haruka's limbs. His heart pounds. He can feel the phantom pain of a gunshot wound throb duly, and it reverberates through him with each labored breath.   
  
He grounds himself and inhales the smell of Takane's citrusy shampoo. He draws her closer to him, and she shifts, rubbing her head against his chest. Haruka is a steady beat beneath them.  
  
Shintaro wants to sink back into his friends (maybe-lovers?), but their warmth is a gauzy vernier hiding a festering and rotting truth.  
  
He is blinded by the red behind his own eyelids:  
  
A not-quite-Konoha-not-quite-clearing-eye's widening gaze.  
  
Ene's petrified pulse.  
  
  
  
All of the timelines seem to coalesce into one - like a copy of a copy, blurring into itself - and he cradles an epiphany that is heavy and fragile, like a newborn baby, between his arms.

 

  
Takane stirs, relaxing her hold on his shirt. "Hot chocolate?" she mumbles. Shintaro nods, and they start the delicate process of disentangling themselves from Haruka, who flops loose-limbed and snoring softly, before wrapping himself around a pillow.  
  
It’s difficult moving around in the dark, with shadows and fuzzy outlines as their only guidelines, but somehow, they make their way out. Groggily, Shintaro feels his way around a wall and flicks the light switch on.  
  
He yelps as he's blinded momentarily.  
  
"Weak" Takane tuts, already fixing the water for the stove.  
  
"You're merciless." He sighs, washing the cups. He can't help but glance over at her as he does so -- Haruka's shirt is comically large on her, it leaves one shoulder half exposed and drapes over her pajama pants like a dress, and her hair in its floofed-up state has lost the sharp edges that come with gel and flat irons.  
  
"Pervert," she says fondly, getting the mix.  
  
Shintaro rolls his eyes. He's above cheap and insincere insults.  
  
"At least I am cultured enough to know how to make hot chocolate right."  
  
"Aw, so you don't deny it?"  
  
"I am a respectable member of society"  
  
"Ah, she simpers, leaning into the counter. "And such a well-read scholar! I wonder what would happen if, if your ah, private sources got out?"  
  
"You wouldn't," he gasps.  
  
A nefarious smile tugs the edges of her face. "I won't" she concedes. "If you tell me what's wrong."  
  
He shudders. "You're a cruel, cruel woman."  
  
She shrugs.  
  
He plays with a packet. He looks up at the splintered ceiling. Momo was willing to pitch in to get them a better place, but this feels right, having something he worked towards.

  
"I don't know a world where we haven't failed." He thinks of the corpses of the Mekakushi Dan. He remembers dying, over and over again. "I don't want to lose this one."  
  
Takane lays a hand on top of his. “I get that it's hard, and I can’t imagine how much it would suck to have your eye ability, but I think you have to remember that the clearing eyes snake is in the Kagerou and that the cycle is complete. There's a first for everything."  
  
He nods.  
  
A long moment of comfortable silence is broken by the shrill shriek of the pot boiling, and the thump Haruka makes stumbling into a wall to join them.  
  
He doesn't know what his life would have been like if he and his sister hadn't met Hibiya and Hiyori, if he hadn't had broken his leg, if he and Haruka weren't video game rivals, if he hadn't spilled coke all over his keyboard.  
  
All of the possibilities, all of the loops, lead up to this moment: the hot chocolate that stings his tongue, and the comforting weights of Haruka and Takane against his sides. And as always, he will push through.  
  
  
  


 


End file.
